Houston’s Art Howe livid over his portrayal in ‘Moneyball’

Every movie needs a villain, and for one of the top grossing movies of the last week, the villain resides among us. At least that’s how the movie seemed to portray it at times, but Art Howe, played by Philip Seymour Hoffman in the blockbuster baseball film Moneyball, tells a very different story of the events interpreted by Hollywood.

Howe, who played for the Astros from 1976-82, managed them from 1989-93 and now does the pre- and postgame shows for Fox Sports Houston, living in Houston all the while, was the manager of the Oakland Athletics club on which the movie was based. He was shown being consistently at odds with general manager Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) and consumed with his own personal financial future.

His recollection of the events is quite different, and Howe felt betrayed by the movie, based on a 2003 Michael Lewis book for which he says he was consulted only for about 10 minutes.
Here are his thoughts on his unceremonious big screen debut.

Q: What was it like to be portrayed on screen and how did you feel you were portrayed?

A: First of all, Philip Seymour Hoffman physically didn’t resemble me in any way. He was a little on the heavy side. And just the way he portrayed me was very disappointing and probably 180 degrees from what I really am, so that was disappointing too.

Q: Was the contract an issue? I know that was a big thing in the movie and almost how they introduced you in the movie.

A: That was fictitious. They didn’t do their homework as far as the movie was concerned because I was on a two-year contract through 2003. I had another year after that. My agent always took care of my contract; I never negotiated with Billy, especially not in the hallway of the clubhouse. Never happened.

Q: What was your working relationship like with Billy?

A: It was a job. It was a work of labor. He was a little difficult to work with. We got the job done. I had a great staff and our minor league system did a good job of preparing players for us. And our scouting department, before this so-called Moneyball, did a great job of bringing good young players into the system.

Q: Was he a clubhouse presence like he was portrayed in the movie?

A: More so than any general manager I’ve ever worked with. He’d lift weights during the game right across the hall and be in the clubhouse. Generally when we were home, he was in the clubhouse almost every night.

Q: Did you find that to be OK? Undermining?

A: He’s my boss. I guess he has the right to be in the clubhouse. In the past, general managers really didn’t come in the clubhouse that much. In fact, when I was a player, I rarely saw my general manager. But times have changed.

Q: What were your thoughts at the time of the way he and Paul DePodesta (aka Peter Brand, played by Jonah Hill in the movie) did their player evaluations?

A: It was different. It was certainly a different thing to a degree, but everybody in baseball knows that on-base percentage is important. He really zeroed in on that, and everybody bought into it that there was something really different that they were doing.

Q: How do you look back on your time in Oakland?

A: I think it was a great learning experience, and for me it was a good experience. We went from last place to first place. My last few years there, we played in the postseason, won 102 and 103 games, set an all-time record for winning streak with 20 straight wins. I’m real proud of what I helped achieve there; it certainly wasn’t a one-man deal or a two-man deal. It was the whole organization. Great pitching with (Mark) Mulder, (Tim) Hudson and (Barry) Zito and a guy named (Cory) Lidle, who was our fourth starter and had a good year for us, and Billy Koch had (44) saves for us. Miguel Tejada was MVP at shortstop. Zito was the Cy Young Award winner that year, and Koch was the Fireman of the Year. That’s where I was really disappointed with the movie also, is that none of these players got any credit.

Q: Carlos Pena played an interesting role, and it wasn’t even a footnote what he went on to do. Did you see stardom when you first saw him, or at least his ability to get to an All-Star level like he’s gotten to?

A: Right from the beginning. We knew he was an outstanding defensive first baseman. He’s a rookie; there’s going to be learning curves and he’s going to have to take some lumps. As we’ve actually seen throughout his career, he’s kind of a streak type hitter. He went through a funk with us and Billy decided he didn’t want him with us anymore. It kind of opened the door for one of his experiments, I guess, with Scott Hatteberg. And Scottie’s a great guy, a good teammate and a hard-nosed kid. He did a good job for us.

Q: Would you like to manage again?

A: Under the right circumstances, yes.

Q: Do you feel that this (movie and book) affects your name in baseball circles?

A: It certainly doesn’t help it the way I was portrayed. I think the book hurt me and now the movie. I want people who don’t know Art Howe – that’s the problem with the movie – I’ve spent my whole career trying to build a good reputation and be a good baseball man and someone who people like to play for and all of the above. Then in two hours, people who don’t know me – and Brad Pitt’s a big name, people are going to see his movies – and all these people across the country are going to go in and get this perception of me that’s totally unfair and untruthful. So I’m very upset.